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PFS0149

Populations, communities and ecosystems

Populations, communities and ecosystems
The course starts with an introduction to ecology and the fundamental understanding of evolution to understand processes at the population, community and ecosystem scale. The course then continues with the concept of populations, discussing how the concepts of birth, death and movement shape populations over time. We will also highlight some of the key concepts of population ecology, such as r versus K species, density dependence processes and dispersal. We will then scale up from populations to communities, including meta-population dynamics and island biogeography. Last, we will elaborate on how biotic and abiotic aspects jointly shape ecosystems and discuss key aspects of ecosystem theory such as energy fluxes, and bottom-up versus top-down control of ecosystems.

Kursplan och övrig information


Kursplan

PFS0149 Populations, communities and ecosystems, 1,5 Hp

Ämnen

Biologi

Utbildningens nivå

Forskarnivå

Förkunskapskrav

Admitted to a postgraduate program. The course is suitable for all graduate students who do not specialize in ecology.

Mål

The aim of the course is to introduce basic ecology, particularly theory on populations, communities and ecosystems. Learning outcomes: Upon completion of the course the student should be able to: - Explain the concepts of population, community and ecosystem - Describe how natural selection shapes individuals and populations - Explain how births, deaths, and movement shape populations - Apply theory on life tables to estimate changes in population size - Summarize key processes in population ecology - Apply theory on meta-population dynamics to study populations - Apply theory on island biogeography to study communities - Understand that communities are intimately linked with the abiotic environment by fluxes of energy and matter - Understand the meanings of species richness and diversity indices - Understand richness gradients with latitude, altitude and during community succession, and the difficulties of explaining them - Give examples of bottom-up versus top-down control of ecosystems.

Innehåll

The course starts with an introduction to ecology and the fundamental understanding of evolution to understand processes at the population, community and ecosystem scale. The course then continues with the concept of populations, discussing how the concepts of birth, death and movement shape populations over time. We will also highlight some of the key concepts of population ecology, such as r versus K species, density dependence processes and dispersal. We will then scale up from populations to communities, including meta-population dynamics and island biogeography. Last, we will elaborate on how biotic and abiotic aspects jointly shape ecosystems and discuss key aspects of ecosystem theory such as energy fluxes, and bottom-up versus top-down control of ecosystems.

Ytterligare information

Pedagogical form: The course consists of lectures and self-study as the course aims at providing theoretical understanding of the concept of ecology. This will be tested with a written exam.



Preliminary time schedule:

Day (working days) 1-4:

9.00 – 12.00 Lecture

13.00 – 16.00 Self-study of literature

Day 5:

9.00 – 12.00 Exam



The Department reserves the right to cancel the course if there are not more than 5 students who have applied for the course. There is no tuition fee. The student is responsible for any housing and travel costs. Students belonging to the ECOS research school have priority to the course.



Part of research school: ECOS, Ecology and society



Education cycle: Third



Scope: Basic course, aimed at students with non-ecology background

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